Trump’s A.I. Identity Crisis

Donald Trump
Not surprisingly, the president’s strong support for the A.I. industry appears to be driven more by short-term political opportunism than by principle. Photo: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Leigh Ann Caldwell
September 7, 2025

On Thursday night, some two dozen tech leaders crowded around a long table in the White House state dining room to lay out how their investments in A.I.—erecting data centers, semiconductor factories, nuclear power plants, etcetera—were helping to make America great again. Apple C.E.O. Tim Cook said his company planned to invest $600 billion in the U.S., while profusely thanking Trump for his leadership. Mark Zuckerberg, who was seated next to the president, quickly matched that number, saying Meta would spend “at least $600 billion through ’28 in the U.S.” Trump, beaming, responded to praise from OpenAI president Greg Brockman by saying he couldn’t believe they were all building “the biggest buildings ever.”